


cold bite

by lutzaussi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dogs, M/M, Mission Fic, Sharing Body Heat, Snow and Ice, accidental confessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 20:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12066345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: Two weeks in a cave with Hatake Kakashi on a mission he doesn't know the specifics to. Iruka will be fine. He'll be fine.He's going to fucking die, isn't he.





	cold bite

Iruka doesn’t really know how the hell he got assigned a mission with Hatake Kakashi. Merely in terms of power and skill he is vastly outranked, but even looking at actual rank he is still outranked. It’s only when he reports to the Tower that he learns this, and the Hokage, damn him, doesn’t exactly brief him before handing him a scroll.

He waits to read it until he’s back in his house, and then he knows. The scroll has the reason why he’s on the mission.

-

Iruka hasn’t had to dress for the cold in years, not since his family moved to Konoha. Whereas most of the people in the village do tend to pack on the layers for winter, he’s used to the much colder climate of his childhood. It’s a miracle if it ever even snows in Konoha, he muses while sealing his cold-weather clothes into a scroll to take along. It is only early October, but they’re heading north, into the mountains. According to a patrol who had just gotten back from there, there is already a healthy three feet of snow, with more coming.

So he packs light, but smart. The only thing he splurges on is extra seals and blank paper, just in case, but even then his pack is light thanks to everything being sealed in scrolls.

Before he even pulls his boots on (sandals are, in his opinion, a mistake) he has to take a minute to remind himself to breathe. He isn’t expected to do much other than lead Kakashi to one of the northernmost passes in the Land of Fire and act as his cold-weather-snow-tracker as well as a guide. On one hand, Iruka is glad that he can be useful in some manner, but in another he feels like Kakashi really doesn’t need his help _tracking_.

-

Kakashi needs his help tracking. The fact is mindboggling but also sort of hilarious because as soon as they get into the deeper drifts of snow and the air turns freezing, Kakashi has to wrap another scarf around his face and defer to Iruka.

At that point Iruka also changes into his cold weather clothes, and they hit the foothills that slowly give rise to the mountains.

-

It takes them the better part of a week to get to the mountain pass, slogging through the snow at a slow pace to make sure that they leave as little trail as possible. Then, also, if they’re apparently going to be staying in a cave they’ll need wood, so Iruka has them scrounging for fallen bits, occasionally taking wood off of trees if the branches won’t be noticed. They strike gold one evening, finding a hutch with wood stacked under it for travelers. Iruka takes as much as he can without leaving too much of a mark; it helps that he can just seal all of the wood into a scroll.

Once at the pass, it’s just a matter of finding somewhere they can stay. The mission parameters, before Iruka had released the burning seal on them, had told him that they are to stay in the pass for the better part of a week.

So. A week. In the deep snows of winter. Iruka hopes that none of the cave systems he remembers have been wiped out.

-

They find one on the first day of searching, and they’re actually a day ahead of schedule in doing so. Whatever Kakashi is supposed to be finding seems to be a few days out, so Iruka does what he does best.

Adapts.

-

Their second night in the cave is the first that has any real interaction between the two of them, other than the general shop talk.

Iruka’s out to check the traps he’d set the evening before when he finds two snowshoe hares caught in one of them. It seems a weird stroke of luck, but he doesn’t take it for granted, field dresses the animals before heading back to the cave. The wind has picked up and the color of the clouds means that they’re looking at more snow, if not a goddamn blizzard, so he moves fast.

Kakashi is marking a map weighed down on the floor with rocks, but looks up when Iruka works through the wards in the opening of the cave. They are of his own invention, to try and keep the cold out and the warmth in, and are decently effective. But, really, there’s only so much that one can do in the face of the weather, and he’s done as much as he can.

“No movement,” he reports, sitting to butcher the hares. Kakashi nods, goes back to what he is doing.

Long ago, when he had been training as a pre-genin, Iruka thought that life as a shinobi would be full of glorious battles and heroics. Iruka is quite glad he’s lost that optimism, as he never really considered all of the mud and blood and, lord, the wet clothes. That is, personally, his least favorite part.

But sitting near the fire dries him out, and as discomfited as he still is by being around Kakashi, having work makes the task easier. It also helps that he has enough things to occupy himself when they’re just waiting around, his seals and things.

“You’re from here,” Kakashi says. It seems like a question but it is merely an observation.

“I grew up in the mountains,” Iruka agrees, not moving his attention from the hares. “Until I was five.”

Kakashi makes what is maybe an assenting noise, and when Iruka peeks up he’s no longer working, but staring at his map with a slightly perplexed expression on his face. He focuses back on the hares, but it isn’t really a surprise when Kakashi speaks again, his voice slow and considered.

“That’s why you started the Academy late.”

Iruka nods, doesn’t look up. Somehow he can feel Kakashi’s eyes on him, but—as much as he appreciates Kakashi for his physique and what he does for the village, that’s a little too personal. Or maybe it’s just that, that he doesn’t really know Kakashi, that makes him speak, “I wasn’t allowed to start at the Academy until I was six. Since my dad and I had lived out here we had to be vetted; it only happened quickly because my mother was a jounin in Konoha.”

Kakashi makes another “hmm” noise, goes back to shuffling his papers.

They eat in silence, and Iruka takes first watch.

-

By the fourth day of them living in the cave, Iruka is somewhat exhausted. He doesn’t really know how they’re going to last for as long as they’re supposed to with having to stay up nights.

Kakashi solves it rather quickly by summoning three dogs; Iruka doesn’t know any of them but the smallest immediately throws itself at him and claims his lap. Kakashi looks like he wants to say something about it, but he sighs and just points to each dog in turn, “Akino, Shiba, and Bisuke. How the hell did you tag along?” he asks the final dog.

The small dog on Iruka’s lap barks out something that sounds like, “You’ll never know.”

-

On day five, Iruka doesn’t even bother suppressing a laugh when Kakashi returns to the cave with snow coating him like a layer of rice flour. Kakashi looks surprised when he does, but that surprise quickly turns to petulant annoyance.

(Iruka can see him smiling through his mask as he dries off; he doesn’t feel bad.)

-

A week into their watch, and still no movement. Iruka goes out at what would probably be dusk (if he could see the sky) to lay more traps for the small critters living in the woods. And the large ones, he’s tracked some deer and it would be feasible with the dogs to catch one.

But he ignores that for the moment; it’s dark and cold, and he’s ready for sleep.

Kakashi is already fully wrapped into his bedroll when Iruka returns. He’d been out since early to make sure that he hadn’t missed anything, and for all Iruka knew he hadn’t missed anything. Then he had sent Shiba and Bisuke to patrol, because the dogs somehow managed to leave no traces of themselves behind in the snow, and had spent a further three hours agonizing over some scrolls and his map.

Iruka shakes off the snow on his head and shoulders, stomps his feet to get the worst clumps off his boots. “Good job today,” he says, a little wryly.

Kakashi looks at him, distinctly unamused, but doesn’t reply, instead burrows deeper into the blankets. He can’t really blame him; it’s damned cold outside. Inside the cave is barely better, and now that Iruka is back he really wants to imitate Kakashi, but their fire is getting low.

Akino is sitting near the cave entrance, just out of reach of the snow and right next to the woodpile. He stares at Iruka until Iruka scratches his head, and then he makes a whining sound whenever Iruka moves to get wood and go back. It gets to the point where Iruka’s been sitting and petting him for ten full minutes. Finally, the muffled voice of Kakashi yells, “Akino, let him be.”

Akino rolls his eyes, and Iruka rolls his eyes.

He builds up the fire and has Kakashi agree (in his still very muffled tone) to checking on the fire during the night. With the dogs acting as guards it frees them up to actually get sleep, but if the fire dies down they’re both likely to freeze to death in their sleep.

As Iruka shoves himself into his bedroll he likewise shoves away unbidden thoughts of how they could keep warm, and barely registers Kakashi saying, “I don’t know how you can stand the cold.”

“Years of experience,” Iruka says, pauses, and adds, “and layering.”

“Gn,” Kakashi sneezes, and from the scuffling noises Iruka guesses he’s pulling the blankets tighter. “Hate the cold.”

“Well, it doesn’t often get too cold in Konoha,” Iruka concedes, fidgets around until he can see the tuft of silver hair that is the lone part of Kakashi poking out of the man’s bedroll.

“It used to,” Kakashi says, and as Iruka watches he widens the hole his hair is sticking out of until Iruka can almost see an eye. A sigh comes out, followed by, surprisingly, more speech. “The years I was at the Academy. Gai nearly lost two fingers to frostbite; Asuma knitted us all scarves.”

“That sounds like Asuma.”

“He threatened to break my legs if I didn’t wear it, so I was tempted not to, but I wore it anyway.”

“That…also sounds like Asuma.”

“He knits all of us new scarves every year. I swear to god, he finds the absolute ugliest yarn for them. I mean, Kurenai always says they’re lovely but she’s sleeping with him,” Kakashi grumbles.

That sends Iruka’s mind back on its tangent to dirtier subjects, but he manages to pull himself out of it. “There were blizzards,” he finally says, “I remember.” His mother had stayed with them, all of those winters, having taken enough high-level missions during the rest of the year to afford it. Months of hunting in the snow, with her, were some of his fondest memories.

Before they’d left for Konoha, and before his life had been torn apart.

-

The next night Kakashi talks about himself, which is rather disarming. Well, more about himself, because ever since they made it to the cave he seems to have been in a sharing mood. He talks more about the winters he weathered in Konoha, and mentions his parents once or twice.

When Iruka’s falling asleep he wonders if this is something that Kakashi does with all of the people he takes missions with, or if Iruka’s just special in some way.

(How the hell would he be special?)

-

A week and a half of being in the cave, and Kakashi sits close enough to Iruka that their body heat is shared while they eat stew made of dried herbs, potatoes, and deer meat. The snow has died down, only to be replaced with a bitter cold that no amount of physical activity or fire can ward off, but on the plus Kakashi seems to have had some success with whatever the hell he’s doing.

Iruka is not complaining about the invasion of his space. The chill is even bad enough that he’s having trouble sleeping, even with Bisuke’s additional body heat, and while Iruka is hesitant to suggest they sleep together he figures they probably should.

You know, so they don’t freeze to death. Solely for that purpose.

As luck would have it, he doesn’t even have to bring it up. No, _Kakashi_ does, which is sort of bizarre but then again the man can’t really retain heat for shit and doesn’t have the benefit of a dog sleeping with him (hah, his ninken like Iruka more). Well, more broadly Kakashi says, while they’re cleaning up and feeding the dogs, “Is there any way for us to stay warmer at night because I would like to keep all of my limbs.”

Really it follows that Iruka hesitantly suggest they turn their bedrolls into one big bed, and Kakashi looks almost relieved.

-

Hatake Kakashi, the famed Copy Nin of Konoha, is a cuddler.

Of all the situations Iruka thought the mission might bring down on him, waking up to find Kakashi wrapped around him (legs and arms, like a leech) was not one of them. And despite how amazing the entire situation is, it’s _bad_ , because he really needs to pee.

After five minutes of debating the pros and cons of shaking awake a seasoned killer who has so far showed a lot of homicidal tendencies early in the morning, Kakashi does wake up. And he doesn’t let go. No, in fact, he squeezes Iruka tighter while muttering, “So warm.”

“Kakashi,” Iruka says, trying to stay calm and rather managing to despite how red his face has become, “Kakashi let go of me.”

Despite how embarrassed Kakashi is after that, the last two nights they stay in the cave Iruka wakes up to the same. At least he’ll have the memories, when all is said and done.

-

They are a day short of two weeks in the cave when Akino flies in barking something that apparently Kakashi understands but Iruka does not understand at all. “Movement,” Kakashi translates, pulling his coat and scarf on, calling back to Iruka, “Stay here!”

Iruka keeps the fire going, and makes sure everything is packed away in his bag just in case. Bisuke does wonders to distract him, and once Shiba is made aware of the fact that Iruka is giving out belly rubs, he has his hands full with the dogs for a few minutes. Shiba returns to guard duty, and Bisuke climbs onto Iruka’s lap.

“You like the boss, huh?” the dog asks. What the hell.

“Sure?” He tries ear scratches as a distraction measure. They don’t work.

Bisuke rolls over and pokes Iruka into rubbing his stomach again. “Well he damn well won’t stop talking about you. It’s annoying. But you’re nice! Would you like to make a contract with me so I don’t have to see the boss again?”

Iruka laughs more out of panic than actual amusement, and is actually sort of thankful when Kakashi himself appears, swirling into the cave with snow sloughing off of him. He makes a hand sign and the dogs disappear, which means that something is happening. Iruka has the fire out moments after pulling on his bag, and they head out into the snow.

-

Kakashi explains some, via hand signs, while they head back out of the mountains toward Konoha. The group he was observing split up, and the shinobi that had remained had finally picked up on their observation. He’d laid several traps for them on the way back to the cave, but there were at least a dozen of them. He had only hoped to slow them down.

By the time they hit the foothills, the snow has stopped falling. That doesn’t mean that the snow is gone; no, there’s at least two feet of the stuff under the trees as they move south. And the wind is still harshly blowing, straight into their faces. Iruka is intensely thankful for thick, pure wool scarf that had once been his mother’s, because it’s the only thing preventing him from losing his nose to frostbite.

Kakashi doesn’t seem to be faring as well as him, which isn’t good considering he’s point on the mission. Iruka still doesn’t exactly know how many people are following them, which is mildly concerning, but even more concerning is the fact that Kakashi himself doesn’t seem to know how many people might be following them.

And they are being followed; Iruka is able to tell that before they even get out of the mountains, and he can only wish that they’re far enough behind that they either won’t catch up (unlikely) or don’t think that Kakashi and Iruka are a threat (also unlikely). It’s just a matter of time, and slowly Iruka speeds them up to a standard pace.

He had hoped they would make it through the mission without killing anyone, but everything tended to go pear-shaped when Kakashi was involved.

-

They are overwhelmed by their followers before they’ve made it to the more heavily-forested part of the foothills, which is both a blessing and a curse. In the trees they could’ve lost them, but a fight is better on more open ground.

They have enough warning for Kakashi to send out a flurry of fireballs, successfully singeing a couple of the enemy, before

“Iruka, break off if you get the chance and head back home!” Kakashi urgently says in a break in the fighting, when they’re back to back, fending off attacks for a moment before breaking away from each other again.

“ _Hell_ no! Why should—” Iruka demands, dodges a sword swing and deflects a second with a kunai—“why should I leave you here?”

“Because I love you, you idiot, and if you died on my watch I would never forgive myself!” Kakashi yells while lobbing a kunai right into a man’s throat, grabbing it when it lodges in his windpipe and snapping it back.

Iruka snaps a man’s neck and yells right back, “I am capable of taking care of myself, _you idiot,_ regardless of whether or not you love me! On your left!” He slaps a seal onto a man’s head and pushes him away when it explodes, sends a handful of senbon at the woman he had warned Kakashi about. She catches one in an eye and Kakashi slams a handful of lightning into her chest.

“Above!” Kakashi yells back, crouching and cupping his hands so he can launch Iruka directly into a woman using futon. Iruka slams two seals into her chest and she jettisons into the sky, explodes up there. Iruka tucks and rolls when he hits the ground, and when he stands back up he finds everyone, other than himself and Kakashi, to be dead.

He pauses, catches his breath, and when he looks up he sees Kakashi striding toward him.

It feels completely natural, then, to grab onto Kakashi’s jacket while he tugs down his mask, and then reel him in for a kiss. It’s sloppy and hot and when they pull apart their breath billows out in clouds. Kakashi pulls him back in for more breathless kissing, and when they separate again snow has begun falling, thick and fast.

“We need to clean this up,” Kakashi says, still staring at Iruka’s lips.

“ _You_ need to clean this up,” Iruka says, poking a finger into Kakashi’s chest.

-

They make it back to Konoha in more or less one piece, and with whatever intel Kakashi was gathering. Iruka still isn’t too sure about that but it’s above his paygrade so he doesn’t care. What he does care about is that he _finally_ , after nearly a month, will be able to take a fucking bath.

The bath is the highlight of the day, really, he considers as he putters around cleaning up after it. Anko was somewhat lax in taking care of his apartment, but the cat is still alive and there isn’t too much dust, so he figures he’s going to have to take her out for dango as a thank you.

For the first time in a month he can _relax_. School doesn’t resume for another couple weeks, and then only if the weather is better. He doesn’t have to worry about class plans or homework until then, and he has minimum desk hours to pick up.

Relaxation seems like a foreign concept, honestly, but he’s glad he’ll be able to get reacquainted with it. At least, he hopes he will be able to, because just as he’s shuffling through his bookshelves looking for a book he just got recently and has yet to read, the window of his living room slides open.

Honestly, he’s expecting Anko, so it’s a shock to see Kakashi on the windowsill. The cat doesn’t seem to get the memo that it’s not Anko, and flies at top speed into the room, yowling, and propels herself straight at Kakashi’s face.

-

Kakashi later refuses to say that that’s their first date, Iruka applying bandages to the scratches on his face while he makes nice with the cat (at Iruka’s insistence). Really, it is though, and Iruka’s had time to think about the things that they said to each other while hopped up on adrenaline. He’s okay with it. He doesn’t know if Kakashi’s okay with it.

“Did you mean it,” Iruka says, once he’s slapped the last bandage onto Kakashi’s nose a little harder than perhaps necessary.

“I said it, didn’t I?” Kakashi returns, looking up at him in what Iruka supposes is meant to be a beguiling manner.

That earns a sigh, and Iruka blinks, sets his hand on Kakashi’s shoulder. “I’m going to bed.”

He isn’t in bed for more than five minutes when Kakashi slips in and wraps his arms around him, nuzzles his face into Iruka’s stomach. The cat, displaced from her usual spot, climbs under the covers to smear her nose on Kakashi’s neck. “I mean it,” comes the muffled voice, and Iruka smiles.


End file.
